Cover of The Body Looks Familiar and The Late Mrs. Five by Richard Wormser

Litchfield’s Lancashire Post Review of Richard Wormser’s ‘The Body Looks Familiar’ / ‘The Late Mrs. Five’

Nicholas Litchfield’s Lancashire Post Review of Richard Wormser’s ‘The Body Looks Familiar’ and ‘The Late Mrs. Five’: In two thrilling, out-of-the-ordinary crime stories, an assistant district attorney attempts to frame the city’s police chief for the murder of his mistress, and a travelling company vice president finds himself accused of the murder of his ex-wife. The Body Looks Familiar and The Late Mrs. Five are both impressive novels by the late Richard Wormser, a prolific American writer of some 300 short stories, 200 novelettes, and numerous crime and detective novels, movie and TV novelisations, screenplays and Westerns.

Litchfield’s Lancashire Post Review of Richard Wormser’s ‘The Body Looks Familiar’ / ‘The Late Mrs. Five’ Read More »

Island of Point Nemo by Jean-Marie Blas de Roblès

Litchfield Reviews Island of Point Nemo by Jean-Marie Blas de Roblès for Colorado Review

Colorado Review book review by Nicholas Litchfield: Absurd, thrilling, and wickedly funny, Jean-Marie Blas de Roblès’s rollicking Island of Point Nemo is a wildly inventive novel that crosses continents and oceans and literary styles and genres, attempting to find a narrow path between two entertaining though disparate storylines.

Litchfield Reviews Island of Point Nemo by Jean-Marie Blas de Roblès for Colorado Review Read More »

The Bridge Troll Murders by Sheldon Russell

Litchfield’s Lancashire Post Review of The Bridge Troll Murders by Sheldon Russell

Lancashire Post book review by Nicholas Litchfield: In the gripping fifth book in Sheldon Russell’s critically acclaimed historical mystery series, one-armed railroad detective Hook Runyon goes undercover as a hobo to hunt down a formidable serial killer who is murdering and mutilating vagrants. Set shortly after the Second World War, The Bridge Troll Murders marks the welcome return of Russell’s tough, book-loving Yard Dog, last seen in the top-notch 2013 novel The Hanging of Samuel Ash.

Litchfield’s Lancashire Post Review of The Bridge Troll Murders by Sheldon Russell Read More »

Book review: Never Say No to a Killer by Clifton Adams

Litchfield Reviews Never Say No to a Killer by Clifton Adams for the Lancashire Post

Lancashire Post book review by Nicholas Litchfield: Never Say No to a Killer is a fast, lean, effective tale by a writer who was very proficient at penning marketable men’s adventure fiction. Although not as complex and stimulating as some of his Westerns, Adams’ tough crime novel has sufficient action and plot twists to make for a swift, entertaining read.

Litchfield Reviews Never Say No to a Killer by Clifton Adams for the Lancashire Post Read More »

Book Review of ‘The Desperado’ and ‘A Noose for the Desperado’ by Clifton Adams for the Lancashire Post

In two masterfully written, fast-paced Westerns reprinted from the 1950s, a hot-headed teenager on the run from the law becomes a bandit… and the fastest gunman ever to come out of Texas. The Desperado and the follow-up, A Noose for the Desperado, penned the following year, are two thrilling tales by Clifton Adams, a two-time

Book Review of ‘The Desperado’ and ‘A Noose for the Desperado’ by Clifton Adams for the Lancashire Post Read More »

Litchfield Reviews Day In, Day Out by Héctor Aguilar Camín for the Lancashire Post

“Distinguished Mexican author, journalist, and historian Héctor Aguilar Camín explores a dissolute writer’s lifelong obsession with a nefarious temptress in this hardboiled tale of lust, police corruption and murder in Mexico City. Day In, Day Out, originally published in 2016 as Toda La Vida, is Aguilar Camín’s second work of fiction to be translated into

Litchfield Reviews Day In, Day Out by Héctor Aguilar Camín for the Lancashire Post Read More »

Image of Zero Avenue by Dietrich Kalteis

Book Review of Zero Avenue By Dietrich Kalteis for The Lancashire Post

Nicholas Litchfield Reviews Zero Avenue by Dietrich Kalteis for The Lancashire Post: Set in 1979 in the savage, seedy bars and back alleys of Vancouver’s fearsome Eastside, Zero Avenue is a tough, edgy crime novel focused on a female singer’s struggle to stop being the dope-running girlfriend of a powerful drug dealer and position her band to ride the wave of the emerging punk music scene.

Book Review of Zero Avenue By Dietrich Kalteis for The Lancashire Post Read More »

BOOK REVIEW OF THE DEVOURING BY JAMES R. BENN FOR THE LANCASHIRE POST

“In the twelfth instalment of James R. Benn’s much-loved wartime mystery series, the inimitable military sleuth Billy Boyle is transported to Switzerland to investigate a murder, monitor dubious bankers and a profiteering Gestapo agent, and help expose the illegal gold transactions coming out of Germany. Benn’s long-running historical mystery series set during the Second World

BOOK REVIEW OF THE DEVOURING BY JAMES R. BENN FOR THE LANCASHIRE POST Read More »

BOOK REVIEW OF EVE / MORE DEADLY THAN THE MALE BY JAMES HADLEY CHASE FOR THE LANCASHIRE POST

“In two shocking tales reprinted from the 1940s, one of the world’s most notorious crime writers explores a self-destructive writer’s catastrophic fixation with a prostitute, and a meek, introverted encyclopaedia salesman’s transformation into the daring, determined hoodlum he has always fantasised about. Although best remembered for his infamous debut novel, No Orchids for Miss Blanding,

BOOK REVIEW OF EVE / MORE DEADLY THAN THE MALE BY JAMES HADLEY CHASE FOR THE LANCASHIRE POST Read More »